When Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz were expected to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2022, everyone knew that there would be a visceral, angry reaction one way or the other.
On Tuesday night, the Internet blew up when Ortiz received 77.9 percent of the vote, while other accused and suspected steroid users like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez were not voted in. In fact this was the final year of eligibility for both Clemens and Bonds. Bonds only received 66 percent of the vote. Clemens got 65.2 percent.
Former Diamondbacks and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was also removed from future consideration after drawing less than 60 percent of the vote.
Fans were in a uproar.
David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez, much like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGuire before them were faces of the steroid era. Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season for using performance enhancing drugs.
Ortiz was never suspended, although a New York Times story revealed in 2009 that Big Papi was one of 104 players who tested positive in 2003. Ortiz would never test positive since that time the rest of his career.
Many have claimed both on the talk radio circuit and online that Ortiz's inclusion into the Hall was based on personality rather than accomplishments.
It's hard to argue against Ortiz's resume, however. He hit 541 home runs, drove in 1768 and was a lifetime .286 hitter. He won three World Series titles, and helped Boston end its 86-year drought in 2004 when it shocked the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, and beat the Cardinals in the World Series. Go by stats alone, and his impact on history, Ortiz is deserving.
The problem is, the steroid question. If Ortiz did indeed take steroids at one point in his career like many others, it creates an entirely new debate, and a sticky one that baseball has to come to terms with.
Should MLB allow the other steroid users in? If Ortiz is in, and there is without a doubt other users that are likely in the Hall already, Baseball is going to have to figure something out with regards to its most prominent abusers of the game and settle it. Then again, it has been 32 years since Pete Rose was banned from baseball for gambling, and baseball still hasn't looked back at that either.
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